


Chapter 58 ½: The Exchange

by aspeninthesunlight



Series: A Year As Severus Lived It [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AYLNO Side Story, Gen, Severus Snape - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-23
Updated: 2006-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23274148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspeninthesunlight/pseuds/aspeninthesunlight
Summary: Another "Year Like None Other from Severus' point of view" challenge entry. I didn't write this-- but unfortunately, I don't have any record of which fan sent it in. So I can't attribute the author. It was part of a challenge run in 2006 or so for people to write portions of AYLNO imagining Severus' thoughts on events. This takes place during Chapter 58.
Series: A Year As Severus Lived It [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673629
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	Chapter 58 ½: The Exchange

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Year Like None Other](https://archiveofourown.org/works/742072) by [aspeninthesunlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspeninthesunlight/pseuds/aspeninthesunlight). 



Chapter 58 ½: The Exchange

The sitting room had gone quiet again, but something pricked at Severus’s senses. Ah. Weasley—Ron, he corrected himself mentally, for Harry’s sake—was whispering to Harry again. The boy had no idea how keen Harry’s adoptive father’s hearing was. 

Still smirking inwardly at Ron’s astonishment at having been able to consult his Potions Professor about the homework assignment, Severus was more amused than annoyed at the conversation taking place between the two boys. 

Ron’s whispers were too soft to distinguish, but Harry’s reply enabled Severus to guess what they were on about. “Just ask him, Ron! You did a minute ago, and it went okay!”

“Yeah, but this is different,” Ron hissed, sounding mildly agitated. “This is...he’ll think I’m trying to change my detention or something.”

Harry sounded as though he were laughing. “I promise—if you act...you know, respectful, and explain why, he won’t yell at you. The worst he can say is no.”

“Or take points,” Ron grumbled. Severus bit the inside of his mouth. He heard Ron shuffling about—apparently the silly boy was going to take his friend’s suggestion, even if he was not happy about it—but then the bedroom door opened. The scrape of a chair on the floor heralded Ron hastily sitting down again.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” said Draco in amusement. “Just go about whatever you’re doing.”

“Nothing,” Ron grumbled, and Harry groaned.

“He wants to—”

“Hey!”

“Come on, it’s not a secret! Draco won’t mind either! And he won’t cause trouble—right?”

There was a melodramatic sigh from Draco. “Yes, your Crumpet-ness.” 

This time, it was Ron who was laughing. “What’s the about?”

“Nothing,” Harry growled, but it was playful. “Ron wants to ask Severus if Hermione can come tomorrow night when we were on Transfiguration. He’s having trouble with basic Conjuring.”

“And she’s probably already doing Complex Conjuring, right?” snorted Draco. Harry must have object, because he quickly added, “Hey, it’s a compliment.”

“Right,” said Harry dubiously. “I don’t know how far along she is, but Ron thought maybe she could help us.”

Severus decided to remind his sons that they might not want to be so unguarded in their conversations when one of the subjects was present. He got up and strolled into the room, announcing without preamble, “I see no reason why you may not invite Miss Granger to dinner and revision tomorrow night—provided she understands that she is not to do the work for you.”

“Hermione wouldn’t do that!” Harry and Ron chorused, sounding outraged. 

“Hermione always makes us learn the stuff ourselves,” Ron finished, leaping to the defense of his lady love. “She just helps us understand it.”

Severus quashed a smile. The perceived insult to Miss Granger had caused Mr. Weasley to change from scolded student to knight in shining armor in approximately thirty seconds. “Very well. You may invite Miss Granger to dinner tomorrow evening on our behalf. I trust she will be amenable to assisting Harry and Draco with the material as well?”

“Sure,” said Weasley, managing valiantly to keep from looking doubtful at Draco.

“Excellent,” Severus said mildly. “I expect to be called away shortly after dinner tomorrow night, but I have confidence that Miss Granger will be capable of assisting you on the subject matter.”

“Yes, sir,” Ron said, sounding baffled.

Harry was frowning. “Is there an Order meeting?”

“No,” Severus told him. “The Hogwarts Board of Governors.”

Draco stiffened, and Harry glanced at him sympathetically. “Is...”

“Lucius has not missed a meeting in years,” said Severus, keeping a careful eye on Harry’s reaction. The boy went slightly pale, but seemed calm enough. “However, he has occupied himself strictly with the Board’s usual business since Samhain. Albus normally attends, but he is occupied tonight with Order business, and we prefer to have a member of the Order present to keep an eye on Lucius.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Draco muttered, a little paler himself, though he too was watching Harry. Harry’s breathing had quickened a little, but he mustered a weak smile at Draco. Ron watched the silent exchange with wide eyes.

“How is your progress?” Severus changed the subject, directing the question to all the boys.

Draco pulled a face, “I actually wanted to ask you—why doesn’t Ingrid’s Fifth Principle apply to weather charms?”

There was a loud snort, and Draco turned in surprise to see Harry covering his mouth with his hand, trying to stifle his laughter. Even Ron was grinning, and Severus had to admit he could see the funny side.

“What?!” Draco demanded.

\---

True to the boys’ hopes, Hermione Granger did join them for dinner the following evening. Severus could feel her wary eyes darting frequently between himself and Draco throughout the meal, and he excused himself early to prepare for the Board meeting. It would be interesting, he thought as he bathed, to see how Lucius would react at the sight of Severus. The two men had not seen each other since Samhain. From what Albus had said, Lucius remained stiffly attentive to Board business in front of the Headmaster, in a sullen manner not unlike Draco after a punishment.

For all their protestations to the contrary, the Malfoy, like the Dark Lord, remained fearful of Dumbledore.

But that was not to say that Lucius was not working some mischief with the Board behind the scenes, and with Albus absent tonight, he might just attempt to turn it into “official Board business.” And it would be Snape’s job to make sure that did not happen. 

Preferably without hexing Lucius—not that doing so would not have certain benefits, but it would be rather impolitic in front of the governors.

CRASH!

He was jolted from his thoughts by a loud noise from the sitting room. Springing from the bath, he seized a towel and wrapped it around his waist with one hand, snatching up his wand as he burst out the door. The wards were not reacting but there might be something...

He burst into the sitting room to find dust floating in the air, and Harry, Draco, Weasley, and Granger, cowering in the middle of the floor. The four of them looked up at him and cringed, like small children caught sneaking extra biscuits. 

Severus scanned the room and located the source of both noise and dust: a sizeable dent in the stones of the wall. On the floor a few feet from the hole sat a light fixture, with, inexplicably, ropes tied around it. It appeared as though the ropes had been fastened around the small candelabra, then the group had somehow managed to rip it out of the wall.

Severus stared at the ropes, his eyes tracing their length from the light fixture across the floor, all the way to...

Ron Weasley’s wand.

The red-haired boy gulped as Snape’s gaze came to rest on him. Severus took a deep breath. “Weasley...what in God’s name are you doing?”

Weasley gulped again. “We...I...was trying to Conjure and it...went a bit...wrong.”

Eyeing the light coating of dust on top of the boy’s hair, Severus drawled, “I would say that it did. How precisely did you manage this?”

Granger piped up, “He didn’t cancel the spell correctly, sir.”

“So I gather, Miss Granger,” he replied, without taking his eyes off Weasley. “That still begs the question of why you chose to practice the conjuring of ropes on a light fixture.”

Ron replied in a strangled voice, “Wasn’t aiming at the fixture, sir.”

Frowning, Severus glanced at it, then noticed that the dent in the wall was right next to the bookshelf. “Ah. I see; instead of the light fixture attached to the wall, you were attempting to experiment on some very old and very valuable books? Or perhaps the entire bookcase?”

All four of them winced. “We’ll fix it, sir,” Granger said timidly.

“I expect you will,” he growled at them. And bit the inside of his mouth. The comical horror on their expressions was testing his restraint. “If this room is not restored to my satisfaction by the time I return, I shall be docking points from Gryffindor.”

“Yessir!”

But the horror on their faces—particularly Granger’s—did not abate, and for a moment, Severus was uncertain of why. Then he took note of the pained way Granger was keeping her eyes fixed on his face, and it finally dawned on him.

He was standing in the sitting room in front of his sons and their two guests, soaking wet and wearing nothing but a towel.

With a stiff nod, (and what dignity he could muster) he returned to his own room and closed the door.

\---

An hour later, suitably attired, he arrived early at the Board of Governors’ meeting and casually informed Mister Deppingforth, the Chairman, that he would be sitting in for Headmaster Dumbledore, who had been “unexpectedly detained with a student matter this evening.” Thus, his presence was known and approved well before Lucius Malfoy arrived.

The man was one of the last Board Members to stroll in, exchanging the usual aristocratic pleasantries with the a few of the others...then he spotted Severus. Lucius froze, and Severus was impressed by the darkness that crept into his eyes. He knew, of course, that Lucius had a good deal of ire directed at him, but that Lucius would be so unhinged by the sight of him was surprising. 

Severus could not resist giving Lucius a cordial nod across the room. Lucius did not respond in kind. Severus could see him clenching his jaw.

The tension in the room was palpable. Severus was uncertain of the atmosphere of other Board meetings, having attended few of them, but this one seemed particularly rushed and awkward. The “old business” was hastily dealt with or put on the docket for the next meeting, and no “new business” was introduced at all. In the few votes that the Board held, “nay”s and “yea”s were mumbled, and eyes remained fixed on the parchments being examined. 

The meeting was dismissed with thinly-disguised relief, and practically everyone bolted for the door.

Lucius and Severus had not spoken at all, merely glaring at each other across the large, round table. Some of the Board Members made tracks to keep from coming between them, undoubtedly anticipating hexes to start flying at any moment.

All too quickly, the chamber door closed with a hollow thud, and Severus and Lucius remained alone in the room, staring at each other across the round table.

Lucius broke the silence, his cold, angry voice echoing in the empty room. “Where is my son?”

Snape’s Slytherin instincts had been humming since the meeting had begun, and now adrenaline for the coming confrontation was adding to it. He could not deny—he had no wish to, in fact—the dark pleasure coursing through him as he carefully chose his words. 

“You have no son, Lucius. I believe that is the technical result of disowning one’s offspring.” He made his voice light and unconcerned, but never broke eye contact.

Lucius slowly rose to his feet, his stance a clear threat, and began moving deliberately around the table. Severus did the same, but moved the opposite way, so they were always precisely across the room from each other. There was finesse in this dance, a manner they both observed. He and Lucius had been friends once; he could not deny it. They had been close friends, and not only due to their shared association with the Dark Lord. They had been of like minds in many ways.

One of those was their shared appreciation for the proper mannerisms and observances of Slytherins. Being Slytherin meant far more than being dormitory-mates. There were formalities involved—even in the stalking of one’s prey, or in the settling of a mortal dispute.

So Lucius did not increase his pace around the table, and the two men walked, circling it like planets in opposing orbits around the sun. 

“You do realize you are living on borrowed time, Severus? No one walks away from the Dark Lord and lives.”

Severus smiled coldly, “Strange, I believe I have been living for...what, nearly six months, now? The boys and I enjoyed a very pleasant Christmas at home.” Lucius’s eyes flashed, and he dug the blade deeper. “Draco was rather surprised to find that he is the youngest in our family—the responsibility of lighting the candle fell to him.”

Almost visibly trembling with rage, Lucius hissed, “You have no right.”

“No right to do what? To take in a worthy young man with no family? It seems that two such young men have decided otherwise.”

Severus watched the Death Eater’s face closely. He had expected—and admittedly enjoyed—that Lucius would be enraged by news that Draco was prospering in his new home. But could it be...was it possible...that Lucius’s fury was driven by more than wounded pride?

For all your power-lust, have you any room in your heart for real affection for the child you sired, Lucius? Of course, he could not deny an inkling sense of hypocrisy, that such a thought would occur in his head. Was he, Severus Snape, worthy in any way to judge the heart of Lucius Malfoy after all the things that he himself had done?

Yet Draco and Harry are mine now. 

“You will pay for this,” Lucius promised, now quickening his pace. “I promise you. You will pay tenfold for this; the Dark Lord has promised to let you live long enough for me to deal with you.” His breath was shallow with rage, and his eyes were black. Severus could almost smell his hatred. “I promise you this, Severus: before you die, you will know torment as even your brilliant mind cannot fathom. Your little ‘family,’ shall meet an end more hideous than anything visited upon Muggle and Mudblood scum by our Lord’s hands. And you will be the last. You who betrayed our Master to save that half-blood brat, you will watch him die screaming.” A little prickle of adrenaline went through Snape’s nerves at this, and he managed not to twitch from the knowledge that Lucius meant was he was saying. “You will scream for death long, long before you meet it.”

He nearly went for his wand. But somehow, he rallied and quashed the violent instincts within himself, and latched onto a glaring omission in Malfoy’s threats. “You’ve spoken only of myself and Harry. Tell me, Lucius, what gruesome end have you planned for Draco? Has the Dark Lord promised him to you too? Will you torture the child you led by the hand to light the Yule candle? Or will you throw the flesh and blood of yourself and your wife to Bellatrix and the others for their...entertainment? Or does the Dark Lord have special plans for him—that you will no doubt be called to witness. You, the noblest of wizarding blood, how much of that do you plan to shed when you seize that child?”

“He is MINE!” Lucius roared, abandoning all pretense. His wand was out, but Severus had his brought to bear just as quickly.

“YOU RENOUNCED HIM! You cannot claim him now, Lucius! You renounced your flesh and blood and promised a rich reward for his death. You declared in that that he is not your son, and by that act, you are no father!”

“You took him from me—”

Severus laughed mockingly. “I took nothing! Oh, no, Lucius, I speak the truth: I have not been spending these years coaching the boy to betray you.” Well, he had tried, but Draco had missed the message, so it didn’t matter. “It was Draco who chose this path; no one set him on it. When you brought him to Samhain, you exposed to him all the filth and foulness of the Dark Lord’s circle. It was he who had the pride to turn away.”

“He betrayed me, and he will pay for it. As will you, for preventing my vengeance,” Lucius vowed.

“It’s you who betrayed him,” Severus replied. “You who tried to drag your own son to be enslaved by a madman.”

Lucius regained control of himself, and slowed back to a walk. “And you believe that because you gave him a hiding place that he looks to you as a father?” He sneered nastily. “I knew you were a fool, Severus, but I would not have pegged you for a sentimental fool.” 

The words startled Severus, and his steps faltered. Lucius saw it, and his sneer widened.

“Do you think my son cares for you, Severus? Do you think you truly mean anything to him? And Potter? Do you truly imagine Draco would simply forget his enmity to that brat? No,” he smiled cruelly. “My son is a true Malfoy, even in his folly. He turned to you because there was an advantage in it.”

Severus now found himself struggling to ignore the inkling of dismay in the back of his mind, that skeptical, Slytherin voice that hissed at him that the truth of Lucius’s words could not be denied. The skills of manipulation and careful choosing of allies had been drilled into Draco since birth, how could he be expected to simply reject them—

NO.

His wand shook in his hand. “If that is so, then explain why you never saw his departure coming! Draco may be only sixteen, but already he is a better man than you!” Lucius snarled, but Severus drove on savagely, “You lost him because you proved yourself unworthy of him!”

That did it. Lucius snarled and took aim, and Severus did likewise, both ready to settle their claims here and now—

The door flew open. “SEVERUS!” 

The commanding voice of Albus Dumbledore froze both men where they stood. Albus had not taken that tone with Snape in some years, and he had forgotten just how imposing the headmaster of Hogwarts could be.

Slowly, Severus lowered his wand. Lucius, looking nervously sideways at Dumbledore, slowly did the same. Albus smiled with a mildness that Severus knew was feigned. “I’m sorry I had to be absent from the meeting, Lucius. At this time I require a report on the Board’s business from Professor Snape. Shall we, Severus?” It was not a request.

Severus never took his eyes off Lucius as he walked around the table to the waiting headmaster. In both their gazes was a promise:

This is not over.

Albus ushered him out the chamber door and closed it behind them. The two walked in silence to Floo back to Hogwarts. Once they were back in Dumbledore’s office, Severus said quietly, “It is inevitable that Lucius and I will meet again.”

Albus sighed, and Severus looked sharply at him. The headmaster had seemed very old for a moment. “I am aware of that, of course. But I would prefer to postpone that inevitable moment until we are certain of the outcome. Just as we are all attempting to do for Harry and Voldemort.”

Severus nearly flinched, then laughed dryly. “I’m impressed, Headmaster. That was almost Slytherin of you.”

“I meant only to make a point, Severus, nothing more.” Dumbledore’s blue eyes softened behind his half-moon spectacles. “At this moment, those boys need you. No one can protect them so well as you. Your death might destroy Harry, and with him our hopes.”

With a sigh, Severus relented. “Point taken. I won’t go hunting for Lucius—though the man has much to answer for.” And I’d prefer to be the one to destroy him rather than allow Harry to do it. “Do you in fact need a recounting of the meeting’s exciting events?” He let himself be sarcastic.

Albus laughed easily, and the tension in the room dissolved. “I can’t imagine they accomplished much of anything, with you and Lucius staring holes in each other’s foreheads.” Severus chuckled dryly. He did not have to confirm Dumbledore’s guess. “You should go home. Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley departed your quarters almost two hours ago at curfew.”

With a weary nod, Severus departed.

\---

His quarters, he was relieved to find, were cleaned of dust, and the light fixture was back in the wall—if somewhat crooked. The sitting room lights were dimmed, but left on for him, and there was no light coming from the boys’ room.

In the quiet of the dungeons, Lucius’s words and threats seemed to echo very loud in Snape’s mind.

Before he knew it, he was walking quietly toward Harry and Draco’s bedroom door, driven by some desire he did not quite understand to see for himself that they were both safely here, no doubt already in bed.

But when he opened the door, it gave him more than a slight start to see Draco’s bed empty, the covers disarranged. A second look revealed a pale form in a sitting position on the edge of Harry’s bed, propped half upright by a pile of pillows behind him, with one hand on Harry’s shoulder.

As Severus opened the door and came further into the room, puzzled by the sight, Draco stirred and looked at him. The fair-haired boy blinked sleepily and glanced down at Harry, who was soundly asleep, and mouthed at Severus, Nightmare.

Severus nodded and came closer. How long ago? he mouthed back.

Draco glanced at his watch on the side table and rubbed his face with one hand, holding up two fingers.

Two hours. And Draco had been sitting at Harry’s side ever since, keeping physical contact so his brother would sleep in peace.

Lucius’s words about his own son seemed to dissolve into nothing.

Perhaps that was true of YOUR son, Lucius. But not mine. But your Draco no longer exists. You are truly unworthy of the Draco he has become.

Without thinking, Severus sat down on the bedside with Draco, and brushed a hand over the boy’s hair. Draco blinked at him in surprise in the dim light; Severus normally reserved such physical affection for Harry, who had been far more deprived of it as a child. Not that Lucius had been a terribly gentle father even when Draco had been given what the man might describe as love, but such contact tended to unnerve the boy rather than comfort him. 

Still, he sensed that Severus was expressing his approval, and smiled sheepishly. At that moment, Harry stirred and turned over drowsily. “Severus back?” he mumbled.

Draco and Severus glanced down, and Severus repeated the gesture on top of Harry’s head. “Yes. You had a nightmare?”

Harry nodded, too tired to be embarrassed. “Was trying to...” he was interrupted by a massive yawn, “cast a Lumos. I did it ‘till my hands hurt, an’ when I fell asleep...don’ really remember,” he sighed. “Just they hurt in the dream because something was happening...”

Severus motioned Draco to switch places with him and sat down beside Harry, pulling his Gryffindor son into a sitting position. Harry leaned grateful against his side, still half-asleep, as Severus spelled the pain from his hands. 

“You’ve got a pillow right behind you, you know,” Draco said playfully.

Harry waved dismissively. “Comfortable here, thanks.”

“Whatever you say,” Draco replied, and promptly flopped heavily against Severus’s other side. “Ahhhh.”

Severus rolled his eyes. “If you two insist on remaining in this position all night, you will both have stiff necks in the morning and I will be unable to walk.” Movement from both sides indicated both boys shrugging. 

“Maybe we should get Harry a teddy bear.”

“Maybe Sals could sleep with Draco.”

Severus snorted. “That’s quite enough, you idiot child—both of you,” he added, as the boys snickered. “To bed.”

Draco stumbled to his feet, rubbing his eyes, but paused as Severus rose and Harry curled up on his own pillows. “What happened at the meeting with...”

Harry opened one eye curiously as well, so Severus replied mildly, “Very little.”

“But did you see Lucius?” Draco’s face was carefully neutral, undoubtedly to obscure whatever emotions he was feeling at the thought of his birth father and adoptive father face-to-face.

“I did,” Severus told him.

“What happened?” Harry asked, starting to sit up.

To forestall further questions, Severus motioned them both to their beds. “We exchanged words. That was all.”

~Fin~


End file.
